Summary

Ladislaus III Varna (born October 31, 1424 in Kraków, died November 10, 1444 near Varna) - king of Poland, king of Hungary as Ladislaus I (I. Ulászló) from 1440, older son of Ladislaus Jagiello and Sophia Holszanska. Vladislav did not sit on the throne of Lithuania, although he formally titled himself supreme prince of Lithuania.

Wladislaus, Dei gracia rex Polonie, Hungarie, Dalmacie, Croacie, Rascie, Bulgarie, Sclavonie, nec non terrarum Cracovie, Sandomirie, Lancicie, Syradie, Cuyavie, Lythuanie princeps suppremus, Pomeranie, Russieque dominus et heres etc.

Translation: Ladislaus by God's Grace, King of Poland, Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Rashka, Bulgaria, Slavonia, the lands of Cracow, Sandomierz, Leczyca, Sieradz, Kujawy, the highest prince of Lithuania, lord and heir of Pomerania and Rus, etc.

Until the 19th century, Ladislaus III was commonly referred to as Ladislaus Jagiellonian.

After the death of Ladislaus II Jagiello (1386-1434), his eldest son Ladislaus III became king. Despite serious resistance from the magnates, who made their objections known during a convention in Opatów, the bishop of Cracow Zbigniew Oleśnicki pushed through his candidacy and on July 25, 1434, Wladyslaw was crowned king of Poland in Wawel Cathedral by the Primate of Poland Wojciech Jastrzębiec. Since Wladislaw was only 10 years old at the time of his accession to the throne, for several years a Guardian Council and a regent, who was Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki, ruled on his behalf. The bishop quickly took a dominant position in the Guardian Council, and it was he who actually decided domestic and foreign policy during the king's minor years, which aroused opposition from some of the wealthy associated with the circle of the queen's widow Sophia Holshanskaya.

At the time of his accession to the throne, the Polish-Teutonic war was in progress, which ended in 1435 with the Peace of Brest-Kujawski.

After the death of Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg in 1437, Bishop Olesnicki began negotiations with his heir, King Albrecht II of Bohemia Habsburg, to ensure Ladislaus' succession in Hungary. At the time, the pro-Hussite Bohemian opposition, which did not recognize Albrecht as its king, proposed to Olesnicki that Ladislaus should take the Bohemian throne. Bishop Olesnicki, hostile to the Hussite movement, refused, which led to a confrontation with the opposition centered around Queen Sophia Holshanskaya, who was fighting Olesnicki. Faced with this, the Bohemians, led by Archbishop John of Rokycan, held an election in Kutna Hora in April 1438 and elected Casimir Jagiellon, brother of King Ladislaus III, as king. Albrecht, however, occupied Prague and crowned himself king in June. A main Polish corps of 5,000, led by Sędziwój Ostroróg and Jan Tęczyński, together with 7,000 Czech allies, captured several cities and approached Prague. However, he soon had to retreat under the onslaught of Albrecht Habsburg's forces of 21,000 men to the Hussite stronghold of Tabor, at which Habsburg appeared on August 11. The siege did not change the situation and after two skirmishes it was rolled up on September 15. The situation was changed on September 23 by the defeat of the Hussite army of 4,000 soldiers at the Battle of Zelenice in a clash with the 7,000-8,000-strong army of Frederick of Saxony under the command of Jakubek of Wrzesowice.

Wladislaus III, wanting to strengthen the army operating in Bohemia, occupied Opole on September 20, 1438, together with a Lesser Poland common movement and subjugated several Upper Silesian princes, and then, going through Strzelce Opolskie and Racibórz, on October 25 he stood at Nowa Cerekva near Opava, but after conferring with Jan Tęczynski he turned back to the Polish Kingdom. At this time, the Greater Poland common movement destroyed Milicz and garrisoned Brzeg. On February 10, 1439, an armistice was reached in Namyslow.

In 1439, a confederation led by Spytek of Melsztyn, a magnate from Lesser Poland, was formed in the New Town of Korczyna. It sought to marginalize the influence of Zbigniew Oleśnicki, whom the confederates accused of restricting access to office. The civil war was ended thanks to Bishop Olesnicki's firm stance and agreement with Queen Sophia, who agreed to compromise and withdrew her support for Spytek. Abandoned by the queen's supporters, the confederate army was defeated at the Battle of Grotniki, and Spytko, suffering mortal wounds, was killed.

In the same year (October 27), Albrecht Habsburg died which vacated the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia.

Despite the fact that Albrecht's widow was pregnant, in 1440 Ladislaus III was elected king of Hungary by the Hungarian Diet, counting on Poland's help in defending them from the directly threatening advance of Islamic Turkey. That same year, Ladislaus left Poland for Hungary, where he was crowned on July 17 at the Royal Bialogard Cathedral. In Poland, the absent king was replaced by two governors, who soon fell into conflict, leaving the state facing a serious crisis.

As Elisabeth, the widow of the late Bohemian and Hungarian ruler Albrecht II, gave birth to a son, Ladislaus the Great, whom she wished to install on the throne, a two-year civil war broke out between her party and that of Ladislaus Varna. Elisabeth fled to Austria, and appointed Jan Jiskre as her son's protector of rights, who, at the head of an army of 5,000, captured the northern and western parts of today's Slovakia, including Spiš and Banská Bystrica. In December 1440, Vladislav's troops won a victory at Bátaszék, and in February 1441 they captured Ostrzyhom. In the same month, Jiskra smashed the royal forces at Košice. On August 19, Ladislaus made a settlement with the Slovenian rulers Frederick Cilly and Ulric Cilly - hitherto Elisabeth's supporters. In the fall of 1441, the royal troops failed to capture Košice, and in addition, on October 15, Elisabeth's troops captured Kežmarok. In turn, the royal troops managed to defend Tyrnava. The war ends on December 15, 1442 with a peace treaty in Győr. In exchange for recognizing Ladislaus III as King of Hungary, he would marry Elisabeth and proclaim Ladislaus the Heir to his heirs as King of Hungary. The feuding parties were reconciled by Pope Eugene IV, who presented Ladislaus III with a plan to contain Turkish power.

In preparation for war, King Ladislaus began pawning royal property on a large scale and going into debt to the wealthy. Having accumulated sufficient funds, in October 1443 he launched an armed expedition against Turkey. The first major clash occurred on November 3, 1443 at Aleksinac, where Ladislaus was victorious. On December 1, 1443, Vladislav III seized and burned Sofia, and on December 12 he smashed Turkish forces at Zlatnica. After failing to break the Turkish defensive positions at Zlatnica on December 15, the next day the Christian troops began a retreat toward Melstnica, where they won another victory over the enemy on December 24. On January 2, Vladislav III defeated Turkish troops at the Kunovitsa Gorge. This campaign led to the signing of the 10-year truce at Segedin on June 12, 1444, in which Sultan Murad II pledged to leave Serbia and surrender 24 Danube castles to the Hungarians and Serbs.

However, with the strenuous persuasion of the papal legate Julian Cesarini (he promised the help of the Burgundian and Venetian fleets, which turned out to be an unfulfilled promise), the 20-year-old king broke the truce on August 4, after which he led an ill-prepared Christian crusade of some 25,000 Hungarian-Polish-Volossian troops toward Edirne, Turkey, in September. In the same month, Ladislaus III captured Vidin, Shumen in October, and Provodnija on November 6. However, the Venetian fleet was bribed by the Turks and failed to prevent their crossing of the Bosphorus, and did not sail north to support the king's efforts. Upon learning of this and of the enemy's numerical superiority, Ladislaus III decided to turn back, but his army was blocked by the Turks and the Battle of Varna on the Black Sea ensued, which ended in the defeat of the allied army and the death of Ladislaus III on November 10.

According to some accounts, the head of the Polish king was later kept as a war trophy by the Turkish Sultan in a honey pot for many years. The monarch's body was never found, so stories spread about his miraculous rescue.

Ladislaus III was not married and had no children.

After a three-year interregnum following the death of Ladislaus Varna, the royal crown was assumed by his younger brother, Lithuanian Grand Duke Casimir Jagiellon (1447-1492). Casimir's long wait with the coronation was due to the conflict between the grand duke and the Polish magnates over the balance of political power in the state and the pretext for postponing the settlement and coronation was the persistent rumors that Ladislaus had survived the battle, a theory that was popular among the people of various countries for a long period after the king's death, and was due to the fact that Ladislaus' body was never found. This gave rise to numerous versions of the story, saying that the king fled to atone for his breaking of the 10-year armistice negotiated with the Turks in Segedin. There are various legends that speak of Varnaños' sojourn to various places in Europe, including Santiago de Compostela and Madeira. There were also imposters claiming to be the dead king, such as John of Vilna. Currently, most historians reject the possibility that the king survived the battle, citing Khodja Effendi's account of sending a severed royal head to the sultan. Here is the king's death according to this account:

A janczar named Kodja Khazer with a valiant attack wounded his horse, knocked down the rearing of hell on the ground, cut off the wicked head and, bringing it to the padishah, praise, favors and a generous reward were achieved. The head of the unfortunate king was sent to Brussa, before that the capital of the state, to be displayed there for the common people to see. For preservation from spoilage in honey it was dunked.

After the defeat at Varna, Europe refused to believe in the death of Ladislaus. Among other things, an envoy was sent from Venice, who was shown a preserved male head in Istanbul. However, it had light-colored locks, and the king was dark-haired. Despite the search, the king's body was not found.

Portuguese legend has it that the king survived the Battle of Varna and then, under the name of Henrique Alemao (Henrique the German, also known as O Principe Polako - Prince of the Pole) - a knight of St. Catherine of Mount Sinai - settled in the Madalena do Mar estate on the Portuguese Madeira, which was supposedly given to him by Prince Henry the Sailor. There he was to marry, live to have a son and die at sea at the age of over 40. An extension of this legend is the claim that his son, whom he had with Eanes João dos Reis Gomes, a noblewoman married in Madeira, was Christopher Columbus.

On the occasion of the birthday of Prince Ladislaus in 1424, a Latin song of praise was written, Nitor inclite claredinis, preserved with a score in the manuscript Kras 52. After the king's death, many works were written about the Battle of Varna. Some of them reinforced rumors of the king's alleged miraculous rescue and future return, while others praised his heroic death.

In 1935 a monument-mausoleum (actually a cenotaph) to Vladislav Varna was erected in Varna, built on one of the barrows above the Varna battlefield.

One of Bulgaria's football clubs, Vladislav Varna, the first Bulgarian champion, was named after him (no longer in existence).

One of the main streets in Varna - Vladislav Varna Boulevard - was also named after him. In 1910, located on the Varna battlefield, the northwestern Varna district was named Vladislav Varna (Bulgarian: Владислав Варненчик), colloquially Vladislavovo, in honor of the king.

In 1992, a Polish circulation coin with a face value of PLN 10,000 was issued with his image. This coin was made of cupro-nickel in an edition of 2,500,000 copies, had a diameter of 29.5 mm and a weight of 10.8 g, with a serrated edge. Also in the same year as many as two Polish collector coins with his image were issued with a face value of 200,000 zlotys, both were made of sterling silver, had a diameter of 32 mm and weight of 16.5 g, smooth edge. In addition to the king's likeness, they differed in mintage: one was in an edition of 15,000 copies.

Sources

1. Władysław III of Poland
2. Władysław III Warneńczyk
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6. Als der König in der Schlacht bei Warna fiel, war er gerade 20 Jahre alt.
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14. Ez a melléknév várnait jelent, nem egykorú ragadványnév, hanem a halál helye
15. Papajík: Jan Čapek 128–129. o.